Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Hans Vollenweider (11 February 1908 - 18 October 1940) was a Swiss criminal. He was the last person to be sentenced to death by a civil court in Switzerland and executed shortly after.
Vollenweider was born in Zurich. In 1936, he committed a bank robbery and was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. Because he was still considered dangerous, he remaind locked up longer. One day he is able to escape. After nine days he is taken on 23 June 1939. In these nine days, he had shot the driver Hermann Zwyssig, the postman Emil Stoll and the policeman Alois von Moos. After living in several prisons in different cantons, the cantonal court of Obwalden sentenced him to death on 19 September 1940. Appeal and request clemency were rejected. In view of the fact that the abolition of the death penalty in Switzerland was already decided for 1 January 1942, the judging was controversial.
One month later, on the morning of 18 October 1940, Hans Vollenweider was executed in Sarnen in the workshop of the prison with a guillotine borrowed from Lucerne. The offender refused last words and last meal as well as spiritual support.
